O artigo oferece uma breve exposição da biografia e do contexto histórico do filósofo neoplatônico Damáscio (c. 458 - c. 538) para, na sequência, apresentar a tradução de um dos seus poemas líricos do período final de sua vida. O procedimento adotado justifica-se pelo caráter lutuoso e decididamente pessoal dos versos, nos quais Damáscio lamenta consigo próprio as perdas sofridas no decorrer de sua longa e fascinante vida. Como veremos, tais perdas estão, em verdade, diretamente ligadas ao colapso do mundo (...) antigo e ao derradeiro golpe proferido por Justiniano contra a filosofia helênica pagã. (shrink)

This analytical study explores the nature of scientific progress connected to current philosophical definitions and the role of institutional governance in promoting this progress. This paper examines how public and private initiatives intersect to create a wartime level of scientific progress during peacetime, as promoted in detail by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) from 1941-47. This study suggests that the public benefit from the war footing approach to scientific progress should outweigh the losses (...) to the public good that accumulate due to wartime restrictions on scientific discourse during times of peace. The interaction and dependence of scientific progress on military development, public health and public needs in general, the tax code and the patent system form the foundation of Bush’s program for sustaining wartime levels of scientific progress during peacetime. This study references the COVID-19 period and the solutions that were applied to emergent public needs through scientific programs. Justice of the United States (U.S.) Supreme Court Neil Gorsuch noted in May 2023 that “…we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” This study proposes that the dilution of scientific truth in public policy is the result of a collective institutional mindset among scientists. This mindset endorses public programs that provide society with a wartime risk response in peacetime. In this study, from an epistemological standpoint and considering the work of other researchers in this field, these developments in scientific progress will be analyzed. (shrink)

The article attempts to show how the dialog Charmides is a skillful and subtle response by Plato to the contradictions and challenges of his time and not, as one could assume, a fruitless search for a definition or a vain intellectual exercise. To do that, we’ll contextualize the dialog through a reconstruction of the historical and political conjuncture of the archaic and classical periods, using the notion of temperance (σωφροσύνη) as our guide.

Shortages of new therapeutics to treat coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have forced clinicians, public health officials, and health systems to grapple with difficult questions about how to fairly allocate potentially life-saving treatments when there are not enough for all patients in need (1). Shortages have occurred with remdesivir, tocilizumab, monoclonal antibodies, and the oral antiviral Paxlovid (2) -/- Ensuring equitable allocation is especially important in light of the disproportionate burden experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic by disadvantaged groups, including Black, Hispanic/Latino and (...) Indigenous communities, individuals with certain disabilities, and low-income persons. However, many health systems have resorted to first-come, first-served approaches to allocation, which tend to disadvantage individuals with barriers in access to care (3). There is mounting evidence of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in access to medications for COVID-19 (4, 5). -/- One potential method to promote equitable allocation is to use a weighted lottery, which is an allocation strategy that gives all eligible patients a chance to receive the scarce treatment while also allowing the assignment of higher or lower chances according to other ethical considerations (6). We sought to assess the feasibility of implementing a weighted lottery to allocate scarce COVID-19 medications in a large U.S. health system and to determine whether the weighted lottery promotes equitable allocation. (shrink)

About six weeks ago, our post referred to the long-winding path to a new theoretical innovation as the pursuit of “useless knowledge” in Flexner’s terms. That little creation is the freshly minted informational entropy-based definition of value, presented in a very short paper, initially regarded by its authors as a research note. (And it still is.) Well, only two and a half months since its birth, this new concept of value has had enough time to power up several of our (...) publications in different disciplinary fields. The first published paper using the new definition deals with climate change denialism. The second paper (forthcoming) discusses the problem of academic retractions amidst the growing influence of generative AI. And the third, just accepted, explains the underlying mechanism of submission mechanism employed by journal editors and peer-reviewers, and the information-value nexus associated with it. (shrink)

Cooperation is vital to our survival and progress. Evolutionary game theory offers a lens to understand the structures and incentives that enable cooperation to be a successful strategy. As artificial intelligence agents become integral to human systems, the dynamics of cooperation take on unprecedented significance. Decentralized frameworks like Web3, grounded in transparency, accountability, and trust, offer a foundation for fostering cooperation by establishing enforceable rules and incentives for humans and AI agents. Guided by our Incentivized Symbiosis model, a paradigm aligning (...) human and AI agent goals through bidirectional incentives and mutual adaptation, we investigate mechanisms for embedding cooperation into human-agent coevolution. We conceptualize Incentivized Symbiosis as part of a contemporary moral framework inspired by Web3 principles, encoded in blockchain technology to define and enforce rules, incentives, and consequences for both humans and AI agents. By integrating these principles into the very architecture of human-agent interactions, Web3 ecosystems catalyze an environment ripe for collaborative innovation. Our study traverses several transformative applications of Incentivized Symbiosis, from decentralized finance to governance and cultural adaptation, illustrating how AI agents can coevolve with humans to forge a trajectory of shared, sustainable progress. (shrink)

It is proposed that our memory is made up of individual, unconnected Records, to each of which is attached a Heading. Retrieval of a Record can only be accomplished by addressing the attached Heading, the contents of which cannot itself be retrieved. Each Heading is made up of a mixture of content in more or less literal form and context, the latter including specification of environment and of internal states (e.g. drug states and mood). This view of memory allows an (...) easy account of a number of natural memory phenomena as well as a variety of laboratory findings such as the differences between recall and recognition. The theory further proposes that Headed Records can neither be deleted nor modified. Data apparently against such a hypothesis can be accounted for in terms of the retrieval process. (shrink)

It is not always obvious for even well-trained researchers to appreciate their peer’s scientific pursuits. In many cases, research results obtained from strenuous work processes could even be regarded as “useless knowledge”. -/- Only in very few places on this planet had the notion of useless knowledge been respected and sought after. That’s the famous IAS of Princeton University powered by the conception of the usefulness of useless knowledge of Abraham Flexner. That’s why brilliant scientists such as Albert Einstein, Kurt (...) Godel, and John von Neumann were among its first recruited members. -/- Our team has for many years now gone through various research problems. Still, it is difficult for even experienced and highly accomplished researchers to identify the type of IAS “useless knowledge” problems. But we never stopped trying. -/- Our latest try has led to the informational entropy-based definition of value. At first, it sounded weird for one to ponder the long-existing notion of value, which is used on a daily basis by everybody on Earth. In short, kind of... useless. But gradually, we have come to an understanding that the very familiarity of the word “value” has long obscured our question of its nature. -/- So, a bit about this newly minted definition is here for your perusal. (shrink)

Thanks to the Internet, Information Communication Technology (ICT), and international transportation, the world has become more globalized than ever. In such an era, people are required to obtain high tolerance and inclusiveness levels. For the young generation to survive and thrive, equipping them with a mindset with high tolerance and inclusiveness is essential while they are schooling. The current study has two objectives: Examine whether discussions with parents about cultural-historical knowledge and social skills and participation in multicultural school events improve (...) children’s and youth’s tolerance toward different viewpoints; Examine whether discussions with parents about cultural-historical knowledge and social skills and participation in multicultural school events improve children’s and youth’s general inclusiveness. (shrink)

Today marks the 7th anniversary of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Social Research (ISR), at Phenikaa University. ISR has for seven years now the place where the co-founders of this portal have been working and producing publications. A special event occurs now as the Current Conservation magazine publishes a new writing piece by our member, Dr Minh-Hoang Nguyen.

The current study is conducted to examine the following research question: What are the factors associated with the sensitivity towards the air quality rating index to reduce outdoor activities?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How is engaging children with nature interactions associated with their pro-environmental behaviors? 2) Is the association between engaging children with nature interactions and their pro-environmental behaviors conditional on the children’s sex? 3) Is the association between engaging children with nature interactions and their pro-environmental behaviors conditional on the children’s grades? 4) Is the association between engaging children with nature interactions and their pro-environmental behaviors conditional on the children’s family (...) income? 5) Is the association between engaging children with nature interactions and their pro-environmental behaviors conditional on the frequency of environmental discussion with parents? (shrink)

“Crow recalls the story about his ancestor, Crow Forefather and Peacock, drawing feathers together. Crow Forefather had drawn a beautiful outfit for Peacock, but when it was the turn for Peacock to draw, Crow Forefather was in such a hurry to eat that he told Peacock to just pour the black ink bucket onto him. Since then, the Crows have lived with pit black, ugly-looking feathers.” -/- —In “Contentment”; The Kingfisher Story Collection [1].

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How are gender, age, and income associated with trying space tourism? 2) How are gender, age, and income associated with the intention to try space tourism when conditional on the level of immersiveness in information on social media?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How are health information-seeking ability and e-health literacy associated with illness response capability? 2) How are health information-seeking ability and e-health literacy associated with the frequency of health checkups?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) Is the relationship between the enjoyment of and connection to the coastal environment and the visitors’ mental health and perceived general health conditional on the duration of daily visits to the coast in the previous year? 2) Is the relationship between the enjoyment of and connection to the coastal environment and the visitors’ mental health and perceived general health conditional on the duration of stay visits to the coast (...) in the previous year? (shrink)

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How are information trustworthiness, usefulness, and immersiveness associated with the general intention to try space tourism? 2) Does the uncertainty of information (proxied by information trustworthiness) moderate the associations between information usefulness, immersiveness, and the general intention to try space tourism?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How is engaging children with nature associated with their environmental awareness? 2) How is engaging children with nature associated with their environmental protection participation?

“– No utility compares to that of escaping an illicit dream, alive and better off, still intact!” -/- —In “The Philosophy of Awakening”; The Kingfisher Story Collection [1].

The current study is conducted to examine whether the residents’ concerns about local issues affect their water conservation behaviors. Findings from this study are expected to contribute to promoting the eco-surplus culture for achieving the environmental semiconducting principle.

A newborn baby is an infant within the first 28 days of birth. Diagnosis and treatment of infant diseases require specialized medical resources and expert knowledge. However, there is a shortage of such professionals globally, particularly in low-income countries. To address this challenge, a knowledge-based system was designed to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal diseases. The system utilizes both machine learning and health expert knowledge, and a hybrid data mining process model was used to extract knowledge from (...) a clinical dataset. The PART algorithm achieved the highest performance result with 98.06% accuracy under 10-fold cross-validation, and the generated rules were used to develop the knowledge-based system. The system achieved 90.9% accuracy in system performance testing and 89.2% in user acceptance testing, and is intended to serve as an assistant tool for healthcare experts. (shrink)

TS. Nguyễn Minh Hoàng (ngoài cùng; tay trái) và KS. Lã Việt Phương (ngoài cùng; tay phải) ở trong rừng nguyên sinh, tại điểm tập kết “thuốc lào hạnh phúc” của đồng bào Mường đi rừng.

Initial responses to questionnaires used to assess participants' understanding of informed consent for malaria vaccine trials conducted in the United States and Mali were tallied. Total scores were analyzed by age, sex, literacy (if known), and location. Ninety-two percent (92%) of answers by United States participants and 85% of answers by Malian participants were correct. Questions more likely to be answered incorrectly in Mali related to risk, and to the type of vaccine. For adult participants, independent predictors of higher scores (...) were younger age and female sex in the United States, and male sex in Mali. Scores in the United States were higher than in Mali (P = 0.005). Despite this difference participants at both sites were well informed overall. Although interpretation must be qualified because questionnaires were not intended as research tools and were not standardized among sites, these results do not support concerns about systematic low understanding among research participants in developing versus developed countries. (shrink)

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) What are the differences in the duration of daily and stay visits between people visiting only one coast and those visiting more than one? 2) How are coastal visit constraints associated with the duration of daily and stay visits?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How are the father’s interactions with children regarding waste recycling associated with the children’s recycling behaviors? 2) How are the mother’s interactions with children regarding waste recycling associated with the children’s recycling behaviors?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research question: How are the temperature and rainfall associated with the countries’ cultural values of embeddedness and hierarchy cultural values?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research question: How are the temperature and population density associated with the countries’ cultural values of embeddedness and hierarchy cultural values?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research question: 1) Who were the people who had no access to wildfire smoke notifications during the smoke event in the summer of 2018 in the Boise Metropolitan Area in Idaho? 2) Who were the people who were not familiar with the air quality rating system?

In the first month of 2024, there was a significant increase in the number of downloads for the Bayesian stats / MCMC computing program, bayesvl, developed by AISDL running on R and Stan. The following RDocumentation (CRAN) graph illustrates the noticeable leap in data for January 2024.

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How is the relationship between general coastal activities enabling close connections and mental health in the previous year conditional on the nature connectedness? 2) How is the relationship between general coastal activities enabling close connections and perceived general health in the previous year conditional on the nature connectedness?

The current study has two objectives: - Examine whether the residents’ perceived impact of climate change on water supply affects their direct and indirect potable water reuse willingness in Albuquerque, New Mexico. - Examine whether being a member of the Republican party moderates the relationship between the perceived impact of climate change on water supply and potable water reuse willingness. Findings from this study are expected to contribute to promoting the eco-surplus culture for achieving the environmental semiconducting principle.

This page provides a quick glance at official publications that use either the bayesvl package in R or the BMF analytics (or both). The data will tell a bit about the research community’s efforts made over time and the growth of the bayesvl/BMF analytics community.

The methodology title on BMF analytics is now in its third year of service to our research community, enabling many researchers to implement their research pursuits.

Tháng đầu năm 2024 chứng kiến mức tăng rất đáng kể số lượt download chương trình máy tính bayesvl của AISDL chạy trên R và Stan. Đồ thị của RDocumentation (CRAN) dưới đây cho thấy hình ảnh bước nhảy khi có dữ liệu của tháng 1-2024.

Our latest contribution to the world’s battle against climate and biodiversity crises was an expert commentary on Vietnamese forests and the prospect of carbon credits trade. The article appeared in the Land and Climate Review on Feb. 2, 2024.

The current study is conducted to examine whether the residents’ concerns about local issues affect their direct and indirect potable water reuse willingness in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Findings from this study are expected to contribute to promoting the eco-surplus culture for achieving the environmental semiconducting principle.

Bios Philosophos. Philosophy in Ancient Greek Biography (Brepols, 2016), organized by Mauro Bonazzi and Stefan Schorn, delivers deep and wide tours through the philosophical aspects of Greek biographical production. On the one hand, it does not concentrate only on the later periods of Greek philosophy, when biographical production abounded; instead, it goes all the way back to the fourth century BCE, when biographical texts were fragmentary and mingled with other styles. On the other, it tries to unveil the philosophical motives (...) in authors' works who tend to be disregarded as historians, biographers, hagiographers, or even as mere fans of the most prominent figures of their own schools. -/- In our review, we will attempt to give a brief account of the ten articles that make up this volume, which, in turn, will hopefully provide an overview of the different connections between the biographies and biographers and their philosophical motives. (shrink)

Trong ghi chép ngắn, chúng tôi đưa sớm ra một số suy nghĩ về việc xây dựng văn hóa phụng sự môi trường, xuất phát từ một góc nhìn gần gũi với hoạt động văn hóa, nghệ thuật. Đó là góc nhìn từ lối sống của một tập hợp, có lẽ hiện nay khá bé, những nhân vật được yêu mến bởi dông đảo công chúng khán giả, thông qua các vai diễn trên màn ảnh. Họ hay được gọi bằng (...) danh xưng rất đặc trưng văn chương, báo chí là những “minh tinh màn bạc”. Những suy nghĩ này có nguồn gốc từ thực tế quan sát được cho thấy, đôi khi những thứ gọi là “lạ đời” chẳng qua chỉ mang ý nghĩa không được số đông thực hành mà thôi. Nó không hoàn toàn mang ý nghĩa sai lạc, hay phản logic, hay trái đạo lý. Thậm chí có thể ngược lại, chưa chắc cái được số đông thực hành có nghĩa là đúng đắn, logic hay hợp đạo lý! (shrink)

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How is the residential proximity to the coast during childhood, and nature connectedness, associated with peace of mind when visiting the coast? 2) Does the residential proximity to the coast during childhood moderate the relationship between nature connectedness and peace of mind when visiting the coast? 3) How is the peace of mind associated with improved thinking when visiting the coast?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How are the father’s interactions with children regarding energy saving associated with the children’s energy conservation behaviors? 2) How are the mother’s interactions with children regarding energy saving associated with the children’s energy conservation behaviors?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How are coastal activities enabling close connections to nature associated with the mental health condition of the visitors in the previous year? 2) How are coastal activities that have close connections to nature associated with the perceived general health condition of the visitors in the previous year?

The current study is conducted to examine the following research question: How are healthy eating information-seeking ability and e-health literacy associated with healthy eating intention?

“By natural order, birthing needs good timing and at a moderate pace. […] Looking for food in the fields and gardens farther from home is important. Also, try eating different kinds of nuts and worms. Mastering all of this would guarantee a prosperous life.” -/- —In “Food”; The Kingfisher Story Collection.

On November 3 and 4, 2023, Dr. Nguyen Minh Hoang (Phenikaa University), co-author of the BMF Analytics [1], gave a lecture on computational approaches using bayesvl and BMF application for social science research.

“Are humans in a toxic, abusive relationship with nature? Love is strange.” -/- —In “Glands of Love”; Meandering Sobriety.

“Only those who have lived among the birds could truly appreciate the magic of their singing. At daybreak, the bushes and the alley corners would all be drenched in a vibrant chorus of birdsongs. The whole scene is exhilarating, exuding the mysterious vibes of a major orchestra.” -/- —In “Conductor”; The Kingfisher Story Collection [1].

The current study has four objectives to examine whether: -/- The family’s provisions of cultural-historical knowledge of other countries, communication methods with people in different cultures, and encouragement to learn foreign languages are associated with students’ willingness to exchange historical and cultural information with other people. Students’ willingness to exchange historical and cultural information with others is associated with their awareness of cultural diversity. Students’ willingness to exchange historical and cultural information with others is associated with their awareness of global (...) interdependence. Students’ willingness to exchange historical and cultural information with others is associated with their awareness of peace protection. (shrink)

The current study is conducted to examine the following research questions: 1) How are the enjoyment of and connection to the coastal environment associated with the perceived health outcomes during the previous year’s coastal visits? 2) How are the perceived health outcomes during the previous year’s coastal visits associated with visitors’ mental health and perceived general health? 3) Do the perceived health outcomes during the previous year’s coastal visits mediate the relationships between the enjoyment of and connection to the coastal (...) environment and the visitors’ mental health and perceived general health? (shrink)

“[…] To alleviate the boredom, after catching a fish, Kingfisher would press all three buttons before swallowing the fish. Pressing the buttons has gradually become somewhat of a new technological ritual.” -/- —In “Innovation”; The Kingfisher Story Collection.

“As time passes, news about the now hotter Earth buzzes through the bird village. […] As Kingfisher casts his gaze upon the events that have unfolded, he can’t help but feel a sense of unease creeping up within him. He decides to collect all the scientific information concerning climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.” -/- —In “GHG Emissions”; The Kingfisher Story Collection.